


It's All In the Cards

by carolej126



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-28
Updated: 2015-05-28
Packaged: 2018-04-01 18:17:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4029859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carolej126/pseuds/carolej126
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Originally published in Route 666 4 (Ashton Press, 2011)</p>
<p>Just why is Dean so good at Trivial Pursuit?</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's All In the Cards

It didn't seem to matter. Geography, Entertainment, History, answered within seconds. Sports and Leisure, Science and Nature, ditto. Even Arts and Literature. While Sam had struggled with some of the categories, Dean had breezed through the questions on every single card he'd drawn.

There was no money involved. Instead, there was a pile of papers in front of Sam, each slip representing a different chore that he would be responsible for. In front of Dean... there were none. 

How could that be? There was no way Dean had been cheating. Sam had made sure. The cards had been carefully held out of his brother's view each and every time, and he'd checked to make sure there were no reflective surfaces behind him. 

"Okay," Sam finally asked. "How did you do it?"

Dean grinned. "Do what?" he asked innocently.

"You know what." Sam gestured toward the papers on the table in front of him. "How'd you manage to answer every question correctly?"

"What, the college boy found this game too hard?" Dean teased. He gestured toward the stack of available games on the bedside table, apparently left behind by a former motel guest. “Maybe we should have played Candy Land instead.”

Sam shook his head. "It's got nothing to do with going to college. Nobody knows every answer."

"I do," Dean said quietly. When Sam remained silent, he added, "I've been through that box of cards more times than I can count."

Sam recognized that tone. It was a cue for him to tread carefully. There was a story here, but if he pushed, Dean would withdraw and Sam might never find out why Dean had practically memorized the answers to a card game.

He waited patiently, watching as Dean pushed the box to the side, and rested his elbows on the table between them.

“Milford, Michigan,” Dean finally said, “or more specifically, Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital.” He paused to look at Sam. “Ring any bells?”

Sam searched his memory. He’d gone to high school in Milford, Michigan, for a couple months anyway. He’d joined the journalism club, dated Priscilla Beckett, and… Oh. 

“Remember now?”

“Yeah.” 

“You got thrown around by that poltergeist.”

“I banged my head pretty hard.” 

Dean pursed his lips unhappily. “You ended up with a skull fracture.” 

“Dean…”

“I spent hours in that hospital waiting room. Dad took care of the poltergeist and then headed out to meet Joshua. There was a werecat a hundred or so miles away, and…” Dean’s voice trailed off and he shrugged. “People were gonna die, so he had to leave.”

Sam blinked in surprise. “Dad was there when I woke up.”

Dean nodded. “He’d just gotten back that night, right before you finally came out of it.” 

“And, the Trivial Pursuit game?”

Dean half-smiled. “I read every damn magazine they had, even Women’s Day and Good Housekeeping. Twice. And then, I picked up this card game that was sitting on a shelf.”

“Trivial Pursuit.”

“Yeah.” Dean laughed. “Can you believe that that game only had the cards, too?” He shook his head. “I must have gone through those cards a hundred times.”

“And you still remember them.” 

“Yep. Just like I remember it took 63 stitches to close that wound of yours. And fourteen hours for you to wake up.” 

Sam took a deep breath. His brother never ceased to amaze him. 

“So, you wanna play again?”

“Yeah, right.” Sam rolled his eyes for Dean’s benefit. His brother wasn’t fooling him. He might have been wearing a smile now, but Sam would never forget the devastated expression on his face as he recounted the details of Sam’s injury, and their dad’s absence.

“Come on. Double or nothing!”

It was tempting. It really was.

“No way.” At least for Trivial Pursuit, anyway. He was already going to be doing laundry - and other assorted chores - for the next month.

No, what he needed was a simple game, one that would give him an opportunity to pass those chores right back to his brother. He smiled. Maybe Candy Land wasn’t such a bad idea! 

~end~


End file.
